To the left you can see part of the playing board. Players roll the dice and move their pieces around the board. If they land on one of the squares with an illustration and a coloured border, they answer a question from the corresponding category. This could be either Missing Word (Orange), Crossword Clues (Green), Multiple Choice (Blue) or Spelling (Yellow). Players landing on one of the red 'Word Up' squares must pick up the top 'Word Up' card from the pile in the middle of the board and follow the instructions. Players landing on one of the squares bordered by two colours answer a question from either of the categories associated with these colours. Each corner square has special instructions, such as the 'Keep Out' square you can see.

More components below

Question Sheets

Here is one of the question sheets (front and back). Before play begins each player takes one of these sheets and clips it to a question sheet holder. During the game each player reads questions from the sheet to the player on his or her left as required.

The front of the sheet (above left) has the 'Missing Word', 'Crossword Clues' and 'Multiple Choice' questions while the back of the sheet (above right) has the 'Answers' and 'Spelling' questions. Each edition of Word Up contains 160 sheets in 5 levels of difficulty (4,480 questions in all).

Word Up Cards

Above you can see the complete set of 20 'Word Up' cards, and to the left the instructions found on the back of some of them. These cards are placed face-down in a pile in the middle of the board. If a player lands on a red 'Word Up' square, he or she must pick up the top card, follow the instructions, and then return the card to the bottom of the pile.

The 'Word Up' cards add an element of chance to the game as well as providing opportunities for players to make strategic choices. (See the Rules of Play for more on these cards.)

Question sheet holders, player pieces and dice

To the left you can see more components, including 6 question sheet holders, 6 player pieces, 2 dice and the 'Word Up' cards. 'Word Up - Classroom Pack' contains 2 sets of these components plus 2 playing boards, allowing up to 12 players or teams to play in 2 concurrent games.

Scoring Tokens

To the left you can see the scoring tokens (20 of each colour). Players collect these tokens either by correctly answering questions, by gaining bonus tokens from certain 'Word Up' cards, by landing on the 'Bonus' square, or by trading their tokens with other players. Tokens can also be lost if players pick up certain 'Word Up' cards or land on the 'Keep Out' square. The first player to collect two tokens of each colour is the winner.

Rules and Guidelines

Here you can see the 'Rules of Play' on the left and the 'Guidelines for Teachers' on the right (click the images to enlarge). Each is a 4-page insert, the first page of which you can see here. In addition to the 'Rules of Play', every edition of Word Up contains the 'Guidelines for Teachers' in which many topics are covered. These include 'Getting Started', 'Introducing the Game to a Small Class', 'Introducing the Game to a Large Class', 'Levels of Difficulty', 'Pre-teaching', 'After the Game', 'If Time is Running Out', 'When to Use Word Up', 'Skills Practised and Developed', and a section covering 'Frequently Asked Questions'.